


Secret Admirers Story

by Anonymous



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Rome - Freeform, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 21:51:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: For Achryatesecond on Tumblr!This ended up being a bit more grim than planned - sorry!





	Secret Admirers Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Achrya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/gifts).



> For Achryatesecond on Tumblr!
> 
> This ended up being a bit more grim than planned - sorry!

Wild beasts, they said. 

It was better than the burnings, Fili supposed. Definitely worse than the quick, clean sword under the collar bone and through the heart and they were still using that method only two weeks ago. Worse than the chariots – he hesitated, remembering the wicked, curved blades mounted on the wheels – but at least with chariots they would have stood a minor chance of survival, if they could mount some sort of defence (no one ever survived. But it was a nice thought). 

Then again, with the beasts, perhaps if he flung himself bodily at Kili, if he held on no matter what and shielded his flesh through it all, they might let his brother live. Romans liked such displays of brotherly love, even if they couldn’t know just how deep it ran for them. 

Because Fili wouldn’t have minded if it was just him – he would have gone to meet his God for the faith their mother had taught them without fear or complaint - so long as Kili was safe. 

He looked down at the dark head pillowed in his lap, felt his brother’s soft breaths caressing the skin of his thigh. Good. Sleep meant he couldn’t think about what awaited them. 

As the sons of a freed slave woman who made her fortunes sewing, they could have never escaped into the army, like so many others did. They wouldn’t have been allowed. Instead they trained as blacksmiths at their uncle’s forge (freed several years before their mother), from which they were snatched, when they started rounding up Christians. 

Three generations of struggle for freedom and for what? So they could die ripped to pieces by sharp claws and crushing jaws. 

There was a soft sound as something hit the floor through the barred window and rolled along the floor right to Fili’s feet. He picked it with shaking hands, unrolling the little note tied to a rock. 

_Head for Ostia. There will be a boat waiting to take you to Liguria and beyond. We will meet again, but only in another life. May the God preserve you._

There was no clue as to where the note came from, if it was even meant for them, or how exactly they might be saved but Fili closed his eyes and clung to the treacherous thread of hope in his heart.


End file.
